


Treasure

by twodwarves_oneeagle



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Parting gifts, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twodwarves_oneeagle/pseuds/twodwarves_oneeagle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dis gives her sons their matching hair clips as a parting gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treasure

Dís had been the hardest to convince; she stared a hard line at her elder brother, her fingers digging into the shoulders of her boys. “What exactly is it you are asking of me, dear brother?” There were only two times Dís ever referred to her brother as _dear_. Most often it accompanied the most unimpressed look she could muster with her pointed eyebrows drawn up high and her lips pursed.

“I am asking for your grace, sweet sister.” The _sweet_ was filled with every inch of stubbornness the Durin line possessed. “They may be your sons, but they are my heirs and I would see them learn something of the world.”

“Maybe you should take a wife and make heirs of your own.”  

“Or train the ones I have.” 

“But they are so young.”

“Hey!” Kili interjected, earning an elbow in the side from his brother who followed it up with a look that clearly read _let me do the talking._

_“_ Mother, we can’t stay here forever. We’re young but we’re not little dwarflings. Kili and I have been training for years. We know how to hunt and fight. Uncle Thorin could make good use of us. He needs men and arms and we wish to go.” To his side Kili nodded his head eagerly.

Dís sighed with resignation, gripping her boys even tighter. “You didn’t come to ask my permission, you came to tell me you were leaving.”

All three of the Durin men had the grace to look sheepish at the all too accurate accusation. 

Dís looked appraisingly at her brother, at this point sure that her fingernails must have been biting through her son’s tunics. Her brother was strong and fierce, loyal and brave. She knew him to be honourable and to build the best of what he could for those whom he loved and those who looked to him for strength.

But, she also knew him to be haunted; she knew him to dream of fire and the clash of metal on metal. She knew him to vengeful and prideful and she knew there were days when her brother’s heart beat dark, stained with all they had lost. 

“You bring them back, Thorin. You bring my boys back to me. I may have been Thrain’s only daughter, trained to wear gowns and hold court but you and Frerin saw to it that I knew how to wield axe and sword just as well as any of the guards and men. You bring them back to me or there will be a very dire price waiting upon your return.”

Kili reached up to place his hand over his mother’s, “We will be alright, Mother.” He gave her a smile naive to battle and trouble beyond the Blue Mountains. “We will return as heroes and make you proud.” 

“Oh my sweet, stupid boy.” Dís couldn’t help but laugh, filled with love and edged with sadness. She dipped in to kiss Kili’s dark locks and then Fili’s blond, hoping they could feel every inch of love she had swelling in her heart for them. “I’m already proud of you. I could ask for no two finer sons.” 

Finally letting go of their shoulders, Dís gave them two short pats. “Stay right here.” Her Burgundian gown brushed across the wooden floor catching at the  low furniture, still swaying with movement even once she had come to stop in front of her dresser. 

Snapping open a small box, one of the few belongings Dís had kept close to heart after leaving Erebor, she pulled out two small clips. Turning to come back the way she had come, she found both her boys behind her, looking at her with earnest curiosity. “I do hope you listen to your uncle better than you listen to me on this trip. Honestly.” Though it broke her heart that her boys were leaving the safety of Ered Luin, she couldn’t keep the small hum of laughter in the back of her throat. 

If she knew her boys, and she did, they would be trouble from day one. There was never a moment when they weren’t scampering about, getting dirty and dragging broken things behind them. More than once they had been dragged back to her doors by the scruffs of their necks by particularly unimpressed dwarves. 

Closing the gap between her boys, Dís hummed appreciatively. “When did my boys grow up? Yesterday you were dragging around stray dogs to play at fighting wargs, chasing the poor thing with sticks.” 

Dís looked to her eldest who had settled into that easy grin of self assurance, the braids opening back from his lips like curtains. “That hasn’t been us for nigh twenty years.”

“Well, it should be, and it should for twenty more.” She sighed, turning the clips in her hands over and over. “Oh my boys, what will I do without you?”

“Have much more time alone with Father, I imagine.” Kili grinned, his eyes sparkling mirthfully, his face always open and expressing every thought and feeling across it. 

“Don’t be smart,” Dís reprimanded her son with a sharp tug of his hair in her fingers, dark like her own and Thorin’s and Thrain’s before them as far back as anyone had known the line of Durin. “I want you two to have these.” She gave Kili another little tug and he lowered in front of his mother, far enough so that she could reach behind and clip his hair back with the silver square in her fingers. She turned to Fili and with a signal of her finger he did the same as his brother. 

“They’re meant for protection. You look out for each other. Especially you, Fili. Make sure your brother stays out of trouble.”

“That’s not--!” Kili couldn’t complain much more, cut off with two pairs of eyes that knew from experience too well what kind of trouble Kili could get into. 

Cupping Fili’s cheek with her hands, she kissed his forehead doing the same to Kili in turn. There was a hundred and one things she wanted to say to her sons, she wanted to beg them to stay, to remain safe where she could keep a watchful eye and see them find wives and have children and learn what a chore it was to chase after them in turn. _When they return,_ she made herself think, _there will be plenty of time for such things._

“We had best not keep Thorin waiting much longer,” Dís heard herself say, though bidding farewell was the last thing she wanted to do. She linked her fingers through the hands of both her sons, leading them back to the front room. 

Thorin was waiting, bristling in the mail he never seemed to remove or the furs he had chose to don once more. It had been painful to see them strip the items of their royalty the further from Erebor they had gone. Seeing her brother like this was a gift, a hope. 

“Fili, Kili, stay safe.” Dís gave the look to Thorin as well, “You too, brother. I would have us all again in this room before we die.”

“I would not, sweet sister, I will have us all in Erebor.” There was a smile tugging at her lips without permission, and in that moment she was just as young as her sons, believing every word that Thorin laid out before her. 

“I know you will, dear brother.” This time, there’s only affection in her voice. 

Pulling her sons in for one last hug she kept them there for just short of an eternity, trying to commit every second of that moment to memory to fondly recall when the house was too quiet and too empty. “Remember boys, Erebor is not the only treasure for us. You are my treasure.” 


End file.
